SLU-MSU post-game thoughts

Hello Bills fans. I just got back from a full day of watching my nephews play in a youth basketball tournament.
Now, I have a chance to share some of my thoughts from last night's loss to the Bears.
First, the impact of Kwamain's absence in the lineup speaks for itself, so I won't spend a lot of time dwelling on that. If you're a SLU fan, you know how much #3 means to the team in all aspects of the game. It cannot be measured by only his numbers.
Also, it would take credit from what I think is a fine MSU team. Cuonzo has put together a well-balanced team that might make a little noise in the Valley this year. They really took some lumps last year in league play, but he added a nice guard in Adam Leonard and some athleticism in Jermaine Mallet, Keith Pickens and the rest of the crew is a year older and more experienced.
His best player, Kyle Weems, was saddled with foul trouble and Leonard was held under control until the late stages of the game when he broke loose. Still, the Bears found a lot of different answers because they had depth. They got 22 points from their bench, including nine from Howell Central's Justin Fuehrmeyer.
We really had trouble defending Mallett, a 6'4" juco transfer with great hops. Matching up with the athletic swing player has been a problem for SLU teams for many years.
It will be interesting to see if they can keep it going once league play starts. I think they are better equipped this year to tackle the MVC slate.
As for us, we were held to 39 percent shooting from the field. We shot only five for 18 from 3-point range. We missed something like our first eight treys, which hurt us because the Bears threw a double-team at Willie most of the night. If we could have hit some of those open looks in the first half, it might have helped our chances. We had three consecutive possessions in the first half when Christian Salecich, Justin Jordan and Kyle Cassity had wide open looks, but could not connect. If we had hit a few of those, it would have been big.
I think the most positive thing I saw last night was our free throw shooting, which has been a sore spot for the team this season. Last night, we made 18 of 23 shots for a robust 78 percent. That's pretty good for a team that has been struggling. Unfortunately, the Bears made 17 of 19 for 86 percent. Blake Ahearn would have been proud of his alma mater's performance at the charity stripe.
I was pleased with how Justin Jordan stepped up last night on the offensive end. He scored a season-high 15 points, including 8 of 10 from the free throw line. He also had five assists and one turnover as he did a nice job of creating some nice plays for his teammates. Defensively, it was a bit of a struggle for J.J., especially when it came to keeping Fuehrmeyer in front of him. That is definitely something that J.J. will have to improve on as the season goes on if he wants to stay in Rick's good graces.
Christian Salecich added a season-high 15 points. He still struggled a little bit with the handles with four turnovers, but he did hit a couple of 3-pointers in the second half when we were trying to come back.
Willie was Willie. He had 19 points, eight rebounds, two assists, two blocks and two steals. He made the most dazzling play of the night when he came from nowhere to block a wide-open driving layup by Fuehrmeyer in the first half. He came from nowhere to block it and it got the crowd really juiced.
Kyle Cassity got the start at the point in Kwamain's absence. It was tough spot for Kyle to be in. Cuonzo took his best athlete, Keith Pickens, and put him on Kyle and he really made it tough for him to get the ball upcourt and get into our offense. I was suprised when I looked at the final stat sheet and realized that he only took one shot in 34 minutes. He did have three assists and two steals, but he is still reluctant to shoot the ball.
We had some success with a box-and-one defense for part of the first half. I thought we might see some kind of combination defense and it helped us stay close in the first half.
It is always tough to lose at home. It does not happen too often. It was probably hard to see the Bears' fans pretty much take over the Chaifetz Arena as well.
There's not much time to dwell on the loss because UMKC will be paying us a visit in a couple of days. Haven't heard about Kwamain's availability for that game. Either way, we have to be ready to play and avoid another homecourt loss.
See you on Tuesday night. I'll have a preview on Tuesday.
Go Bills!